Listeriosis in a free-ranging colobus monkey (Colobus guereza caudatus) in Kenya

摘要

Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive bacterium which is ubiquitous in nature and worldwide in distribution, and which is capable of causing disease in a variety of domestic animals and human beings. Infections in pregnant farm animals may resultin abortion or stillbirth; young animals may develop septicaemia, and involvement of the central nervous system may occur at any age (Storts 1995). Pigs may develop interstitial pneumonia (Lopez 1995), and human neonates and elderly and immunocompromised people are prone to acute leptomeningitis (Burns 1997). The lesions associated with listeriosis are typically characterised by variable necrosis and infiltration of neutrophils. The necrosis results from the production of listeriolysin, an extracellular haemolysin produced by pathogenic strains of L monocytogenes (Acland 1995). This short communication describes a case oflisteriosis in a free-living primate in Kenya.